Despite empty promises of “negotiations and compromise” from the Obama administration, the U.S. government is not acting anywhere in the world as a proponent of “de-nuclearization,” “peace” or “negotiated solutions.”

Today, not only all-out war, but also military blackmail and intimidation have become part and parcel of the reactionary economic and political program of the U.S. monopoly capitalist class. This program is the product of the all-sided crisis of the capitalist-imperialist system. The capitalist politicians are seeking to escape the crisis by shifting the burden onto the workers at home as well as onto the dependent and colonial countries. The pre-emptive doctrine of the Democrats and Republicans has also sharpened inter-capitalist rivalries as every imperialist power seeks to grab new economic territories and spheres of influence at the expense of its rivals.

In this situation, the U.S. military continues to tear down the edifice of international law and declare a “first-strike” doctrine as its official policy. This includes a first-strike nuclear “hit list” in which specific countries are named as targets.

In this situation, the Energy Department continues to spend billions of dollars to upgrade and expand the U.S. nuclear arsenal by replacing nuclear warheads and delivery systems with new and more deadly ones.

In this situation, Obama continues to deploy U.S. nuclear weapons in the Western Hemisphere and across the entire globe.

In this situation, the White House acts as the world’s policeman and charges other countries with threatening the world with “weapons of mass destruction.”

For example, even though Iran and the U.S. are partners in the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the Iranian people are a target of the first-strike military doctrine and are repeatedly told that the first-strike nuclear option is “always on the table.” At the same time, U.S. officials accuse Iran of plotting treaty violations.

This is nothing but the old trick of the bank robber who cries: “Stop Thief!”

Obama is keeping nuclear weapons at the ready and honing them in order to protect the empire of the U.S. multi-national corporations, which plunder the resources and super-exploit the labor of peoples throughout the world. To control sources of raw materials, maintain its strategic spheres of influence and domination, and protect its investments, U.S. imperialism, relies, in the final analysis on military might, including its policy of nuclear superiority, blackmail and intimidation.

Driven by their economic and strategic class interests the U.S. monopoly capitalists continue to picture a unipolar world with themselves as the sole superpower. While all the objective developments of the contemporary world undermine the positions of U.S. imperialism, the U.S. monopoly capitalists continue to rest their hopes on fomenting tensions and waging war. U.S. imperialism foments tensions and seeks to militarize every situation in order to assert its hegemony on the basis that Might Makes Right.

Thus, when Obama tries to prepare public opinion for war by drumming up the phony charge that other countries are “terrorists” threatening the world with “weapons of mass destruction,” we must remember that it is the U.S. monopoly capitalists who are the nuclear war criminals, a class – so narrow and anti-human in its outlook – that it is willing not only to threaten, but also to commit any atrocity to maintain its imperialist empire.

Clearly, in order to defeat U.S. imperialism and to stay the hands of the warmakers, the anti-war movement must be organized as a genuinely proactive movement. We must bring anti-war, anti-imperialist politics to ever-broader sections of the people.

A decisive task is to expose the real class interests – the interests of profit and empire – which drive the war program of the capitalist class. We cannot let U.S. imperialism – which has committed innumerable crimes against humanity – pass off any of its program in the name of “human rights,” “democracy,” “humanitarianism,” etc. The struggle against American chauvinism includes unmasking the demagogy of imperialist pacifism – of talking about “peace” while waging war, of promising “negotiation and compromise” while imposing U.S. dictate, etc.

The people who are already and actively fighting against chauvinism and militarism know that every day – in fact, in almost every discussion – the people are winning. We know that being active – by standing up for what is right – we advance and win. We know that the aspirations of the American people to live in a world of peace and friendship are unconquerable.

The Workers Party says that only the peoples can stop the war program of U.S. imperialism and the decisive thing is to build the independent political movement of the workers and people. As the capitalists prepare for new wars, let us lay down the foundations for a broad, popular front against war and imperialism which fights for a democratic foreign policy – for the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops abroad, the withdrawal of the U.S. from all aggressive military pacts and alliances, such as NATO, an end to the militarization of U.S. society and an end to U.S. interference and intervention against other countries in any form – economic, diplomatic, political, military, etc.

A democratic foreign policy demands and end to Big Power interference and intervention against sovereign nations, and the democratization of international relations on the basis of recognizing the inviolable right of every nation to determine its own affairs. Every nation must be recognized as equal.